A Robot, Some Dinosaurs, And Regular Snakes = Monsters



Paper Monsters Recut (Wii U eShop)

PAL-Review by SKTTR.

Publisher: Mobot Studios
EU Release Date: 13.11.2014 (no German release)
Price: 6,49€



Paper Monsters Recut is a beginner-friendly sidescrolling platformer.

In a world where everything seems to be made of paper dinosaur-like monsters are causing mischief. For whatever reason, it's up to you, a smiling squareheaded doublejumping little robot, to stop them and bring peace back to the land. This is all the story you get, presented in a brief cutscene at the beginning of a new game.

After that you start in an overworld from where you can beam into 33 different stages at any time. Obviously most stages must be found and unlocked first. In order to open them you need to find 3 hidden paperclips and a golden button inside each stage. As there is no time limit you can explore as much as you like and tackle obstacles without any sense of stress.

Inside the stages you find standard platformer quality mostly: 6 worlds with a different theme including bonus stages. Earn points by collecting silver buttons (100 for an extralife), jumping on enemies heads, and even letting flowers and other things spawn in certain places as you walk by – an interesting concept fairly underdeveloped. Highscores are locally saved for each level.



Basic jump and run challenges like moving and disappearing platforms, trampolines and death pits await you. Generic enemies with no AI move in the simplest patterns, giving no reaction to the player. Fortunately things fluff up a bit when you play a submarine in the water stages, have a rocketbelt in the space world, and vehicles like a minecart, a buggy, and a sleigh in a few other levels. The controls are very simple, just left and right to move, and two buttons for running and jumping. With the submarine or rocketbelt shoot and fly buttons are added, but that's as complicate as it gets. At the end of each world some of the easiest bosses of all time wait to be shredded.

The blocky and thin paper style graphics have a good authentic feel to them, and fitting but not very memorable tunes accompany each world. One standout moment is the train stage, and I wish there was more content like that, but instead the unpolished parts appear more frequently. Walls sticking out suggesting hidden rooms, platforms you randomly fall through, a bug where you can't collect a few minor items, and some pop-up. But that's just the beginning of a series of annoying little flaws: There's getting stuck in walls, a glitch where all background graphics disappear, a pyramid stage with a very low framerate, and a bonus stage that is always freezing the whole system.

There are no Wii U specific functions other than being able to switch to Off-TV-Play with the minus button anytime. You get 3 save slots in a profile, and the game saves progress automatically after each stage.



All in all Paper Monsters Recut is a fun little platformer for beginners and younger players but platforming veterans may find it a little boring and way too easy.

-----------------------------

SKTTRSKORE: 6/10